By: Melvin Tejan Mansaray
The Honorable Member of Parliament representing Constituency 122, Western Urban, SLPP, Hon. Alieu Ibrahim Kamara popularly know as Hon. Koyo has provided the sum Eighteen Million Leones cash as soft loan to some youth entrepreneurs in his constituency (Fourah Bay, Magazine, Kossoh Town and other communities.)
Constituency 122 is a business hub with most of the population engaging in land and sea trading.
In an attempt to strengthen the capacity of small scale and youthful entrepreneurs and cushion the effects of the existing climate of coronavirus disease outbreak in Sierra Leone, Hon. Koyo said: “Improving the lives of the young and unemployed is a key focus of my promises prior assuming office.”
He said as a religious scholar, he is a man of his words and has been involved in so many developmental activities for which his people respect him.
“Youth unemployment is a big challenge in the country and my constituency, ” Hon. Koyo said, noting that to address this issue he developed a Constituency Strategic Plan dubbed ‘Vision 2023’ looking at key strategic objectives such youth entrepreneurship, education, sanitation and hygiene, etc.
“I have looked at the aspect of youth entrepreneurship, wherein I saw that one way of empowering young people is by forming them into corporative groups and giving them certain amount of monies as soft loans,” the MP said.
“I identified young people within the youth bracket that I gave these monies. In all we are talking about ten to fifteen young men and women that I gave this money. Some of the youth are involved in clothing business, etc. I gave some of the young people two point five, two and one million leones each. The amount varies based on the business idea presented to me and approved by my team “
“This is not a one off idea but just the start, the total amount is between the range of Fifteen to Eighteen Million Leones” Hon. Koyo disclosed adding that inasmuch as the amount of money might be small, the loan scheme is something that he hope will continue.
One beneficiary said that he will use his money to improve his phone repairing business by buying more spare parts and tools, while the others say they will prudently invest the monies in different businesses so that the other members of their corporative benefit too.
They thanked Hon. Koyo and his team for what they say is a life changing intervention coming at an extremely challenging economic and medical period in the country and the globe.
In all, twenty corporative groups are being targeted having fifteen to twenty members each.
Hon. Koyo said, “imagine twenty people into twenty groups, the number is huge. Every corporative identified one person and we did not target all of them for now. The beauty of this idea is that it is a continuous project, that is why I have designated it under my strategic objectives.”
The MP also said that he has a project for youth in transportation (okada, kekkeh,etc) all in a bid to improve their livelihoods.
“To be frank enough, it is hard to say how I get this money because firstly the times are hard and our salary as MPs is very small. These are monies that I solicited sometimes out of lobbying to friends who believe in my vision. I also have been saving from my monthly salaries sharing it into three parts of self, family and constituents with savings over a period of time.”
The soft loan according Hon. Koyo is repayable through what he called a revolving fund,
“that is , if a beneficiary financially improves on his or her return, that money can be used and redistributed to another beneficiary to do same, a kind of rapid response soft project.”
Hon. Koyo however appealed to beneficiaries to please treat the monies with seriousness as it is a start to show that the MP is a ‘talk and do’ somebody who slowly but surely fulfils his promises to his people.
Recently, Hon. Koyo donated cleaning equipments to area organizations for them to keep the constituency clean and protect themselves against the coronavirus disease outbreak.
“Take this with all seriousness and know that the line is very long. To those who did not benefit, keep continuing to believe and have faith that indeed your turn is coming as time progresses. To the people in other constituencies wishing for such an assistance, believe and have faith in God, He will send you your own Moses.”
Constituency 122 is known for political and social volatility.
Its population is heterogenous, having all classes of people in a small but densely populated area.
The constituency hosts the Freetown Water Quay, PCMH Hospital, slums and perhaps the biggest public market Dove Cut and trade strait Kissy and Fourah Bay road respectively.
The MP, Hon. Koyo called on his constituents to have belief in the leadership drive of President Julius Maada Bio in overcoming the existing challenges.
During the country’s three days lockdown, the people generally complied with the coronavirus disease outbreak measures reports say but water scarcity brought some people outdoor despite the intervention of Guma Valley Water Company.
Communities such as Fourah Bay, Kossoh Town, Magazine, Mabaila, Moa Wharf, Fire Burn, Seaside, etc are security grey areas permeated with petty crime associated to crime busters or ‘raray boys.’
“Yes, a nine year old boy allegedly stabbed a Police Officer in my constituency; this speaks volume of the kind of constituency I am representing. Even at that, we still came out to talk to people to understand the essence of the lockdown and why there were security or police presence,” Hon. Koyo said, refraining from answering whether the incident was fueled by Police brutality or civil disobedience saying that the matter is under Police investigation.
